news Recalling the Roots of Juneteenth
How a Texas Holiday Became a National Celebration of Emancipation On June 19, Gulfport celebrates Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the day in 1865 that enslaved people living in Galveston, TX received news of the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all people held as slaves in Confederate states would now be free. The Proclamation had gone into effect on January 1, 1863, but the news did not arrive in Galveston until a full 30 months later, when Federal troops took control of the city. The momentous and long-delayed message was greeted by the newly freed Galvestonians with prayer, feasting, singing and dancing – the origins of today’s Juneteenth celebrations. While Texas takes the lead in this tale, many locales across the country have their own distinct stories commemorating the end of slavery and the arrival of hard-won freedom for enslaved Black Americans. Florida Emancipation Day, for instance, dates to May 20, 1865, when the forces of General Edward M. McCook raised the United States flag over the capitol building in Tallahassee and declared the Emancipation Proclamation to be in full force in Florida. May 20 has been celebrated in Tallahassee ever since with processions, picnics, readings
FLORIDA MEMORY
By Amanda Hagood
Women sit on a car decorated for an Emancipation Day parade in St. Augustine circa 1922.
of the Emancipation Proclamation, and freedom drumming – a unique custom first created when Black Tallahasseeans took up the drums left behind by Federal troops and forged a new “freedom beat” to mark the occasion. Closer to home, Florida Emancipation Day has been marked by other celebrations, from a 1906 “mammoth picnic” that brought Black celebrants from as far a Tampa and Manatee County to Gulfport (then known as
Gentle, Friendly, and Personalized Care Modern, State-of-the-Art Facility General Dentistry Working with Latest Technologies
727-954-4431
StPeteModernDentistry.com
5500 1st Ave N St. Petersburg
4
Veterans City), to the 1949 grand opening of Paradise Park, a segregated attraction meant to provide Black people access to Silver Springs. Florida folklore scholar Jerrilyn McGregor has described how Maypole dances, part of springtime celebrations in many communities in Pinellas County, intertwined the ideas of rebirth and new beginnings with the idea of freedom embodied in Florida Emancipation Day. Other local celebrations have fo-
DC STRONG
Home & Condo Maintenance Interior & Exterior Experienced in all work A through Z Call Dennis Strong 727-301-4530 Licensed & Insured
theGabber.com | June 17, 2021 - June 23, 2021
